What’s in store at reMADE DXB for the new season?

As part of Saffron Souk‘ investigations into what some of our favorite creative types have in store for the new season, we couldn’t help but have a chat with Paula and Theresa, the duo behind Dubai’s craft haven ‘reMADE DXB‘

Never heard of reMADE DXB? What office tower have you been hiding in for the last year or two? Because believe us, it’s time to get out and face the sewing sunshine. As described by the ladies themselves, the ‘reMADE DXB’ sewing parlour, is not your grandmothers idea of crafting – recycled, repurposed and reused materials are the focus of the craft projects they get involved in, and…. their big aim is to get the UAE sewing!

2. The Ladies behind reMADE DXB, flank Buffi Jashanmal at her book Launch at reMADE DXB – Theresa Tsui (who loves food and being a culture shock junky) and Paula Horsfall (who loves Elvis and smoky bacon crisps). They tell us their collective brains never stop trundling away and we understand that they often have the same thoughts at the same time – It is not uncommon for them to be emailing or texting each other at 3am! Hence why they call each other ‘studio wifey’ – it is much easier than trying to remember each other’s name when you have only had three hours sleep the night before!

ReMADE DXB is located in amongst the creative chaos of Al Quoz 1, within the design collective ‘Objects & Elements‘ (right opposite Al Serkal Avenue). Their space has grown in size since opening in March 2013; they now have two studios – The Sewing Parlour and Le Petit Parlour where they have created a slightly chaotic but interesting vibe – the kind of place you can get cosy in with a cup of tea, a biscuit and some craft.

With that in mind, it is not surprising that their most popular workshop is their Sewing Machine Driving License class. This teaches the novices amongst us (hands up in our Saffron Souk!), your way around a sewing machine – handy if you want to take more classes and make a few gift worthy goodies we think.

Apart from teaching people to sew reMADE DXB also have workshops in dressmaking, knitting, crochet, kilim weaving, decoupage, screen printing, mono printing, embroidery, and loads of other sewing projects. The Saffron Souk calendar is always jam packed with their snazzy classes. As they say "you name it and we will try our best to make it happen". The reMADE DXB ladies are always on the look out for talented artisans with interesting craft skills who they can lure away from their usual daily activities to come and teach a workshop.

Paula and Theresa tell us what they have in store for the coming season…

We are starting our Crafty Kid’s Club on October 25th. It’s a couple of hours once a month on a Saturday morning where kids can learn to sew on proper sewing machines, make good stuff, have fun, and generally learn things via being creative.

We also put the picnic rug down half way through so they can have a mid morning snack and generally act a bit silly.

5. Wouldn’t you just LOVE to receive this? If you have a child looking for a creative outlet, the reMADE DXB Crafty Kids Club sounds like a rather good option!

We are starting our Learn to Knit and Learn to Crochet classes and we were first to sign up for these as we are severely yarnlexic. Many people have tried and failed to teach us to knit and crochet over the years and all have failed. Ho hum, onwards and upward.

6. Theresa uses her time away from the reMADE DXB studio wisely – on a 14 hour flight she is determined to conquer crochet!

We shall have more screen and mono printing where we combine the printing with some textiles and sewing. You get to make your own design and make a mess at the same time but don’t worry, we provide you with an apron and someone else does the cleaning up!

9. – 10. Screen & mono printing – This looks like our kind of fun!

There will be lots of festive fun in the lead up to *whispers* Christmas such as our Festive Extravaganza (lots of glitter involved here), and making Christmas stockings for you and your pets. You will also find us out and about at various markets and seasonal fairs so you can’t avoid bumping in to us somewhere.

11. How gorgeous are these handmade santa note envelopes? We can’t wait to see what fun ‘makes’ reMADE DXB have up their crafty sleeves for the festive season.

Oh yes, we sell vintage china and linens that we carefully bring to Dubai from the UK and our particular love is Art Deco and Mid century. We do find it difficult to let some of our stuff go because we only buy what we like and we need to ensure that it all goes to a good home. Did you know that your morning tea will taste MUCH better out of a beautiful vintage English bone china tea cup?

Since the day we opened our doors we have intended to open our Saffron Souk boutique and we have tons of things to stock the shelves so watch this space. All of our vintage goodies are one offs so once it’s gone, it’s gone.

12. – 15. That’s right – the ladies tell us they are opening their own online boutique at saffronsouk.com! We are just a little bit excited…

Thanks Theresa and Paula for dishing the dirt on what the reMADE DXB Sewing Parlour has in store for the new season. We’re hoping Saffron Souk can find a spare 5 minutes to come and join in the creative fun – those screen printing classes look like the business! if you would like to find out more about the reMADE DXB classes, keep an eye on the Saffron Souk calendar here – it’s worth it, we promise.

The Saffron Souk is a Gulf-based community for lovers of creativity and beautiful things. Whether you’re a maker, a merchant of unique things or a lover of the hard to find, The Saffron Souk is a place where you can connect, interact and shop from people with the common interest of a love for creativity and beautiful things.